A single fire fly lights up a dark field Tuesday night near the Fox Run Good Samaritan Society, 1720 60th Avenue in Greeley. While the wind kept many of the glowing beetles from coming out their numbers are expected to be very high this summer.

Connor Anderson of Greeley took this shot of fireflies in west Greeley using a 30-second exposure. Fireflies have appeared in several marshy spots in west Greeley for perhaps the first time this summer.

Connor Anderson of Greeley took this shot of fireflies in west Greeley using a 30-second exposure. Fireflies have appeared in several marshy spots in west Greeley for perhaps the first time this summer.

Though there are no human cases of West Nile Virus as of yet, the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment warned the public about high infection levels in mosquitoes found in southwest Weld County, including Evans.

Here are some tips from the department on how to mosquito-proof your home and yourself.

• Drain standing water near your home, such as water found in pots, pails and old tires. Use a larvacide if you have standing water that you can’t drain.

• A marshy area off the concrete trail just west of the Fox Run Good Samaritan Society, 1720 60th Ave.

• South of 10th Street and north of the Family FunPlex on the Sheep Draw concrete trail.

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Teresa Tuschhoff was telling her fiancee about her nights as a child in Missouri catching fireflies when Jennifer DeBell, a Westminster native, admitted she’d never seen them.

Well, Tuschhoff told her, we’ll have to go back to Missouri for a summer. She hadn’t seen them in years, ever since she moved to Longmont to work at State Farm in Greeley.

Then a friend, Eric Anderson, posted on Facebook about seeing fireflies close to his Greeley home.

Tuschhoff was skeptical, but a week ago, she took DeBell to a marshy spot on the Boomerang Golf Course. When they saw the first twinkle, DeBell’s eyes got as big as, well, golf balls.

“She was trying to avoid all the sprinklers to chase after them,” Tuschhoff said and laughed. “It was like being with a 5-year-old. We later sat an hour in the car and just watched them.”

Greeley’s had random reports of fireflies, or lightning bugs, whichever you prefer, but this may be the first year that they are out in such great numbers.

You still won’t find them all over, as you would in Missouri or many other states, but this year there are some concentrated populations of the flashing, flying beetles. Two hot spots are the golf course and a marshy area off the concrete trail just west of the Fox Run Good Samaritan Society, 1720 60th Ave.

There are fireflies across the country, but they generally don’t flash once you get to the Rockies. Greeley is on the edge of the flashing fireflies, said Don Salvatore, coordinator for the Firefly Watch project at the Museum of Science in Boston, though they have been spotted west of here.

The project is an attempt to gather several years’ worth of data on the fireflies through volunteers reporting their numbers across the country. Fireflies do need a moist habitat because that’s where their prey live, which probably explains why they aren’t prevalent in these parts but may find just enough moisture to survive in a few select spots.

But no one knows why they’re out in greater numbers in Greeley. The simple explanation is they’ve always been around, but this year there’s enough of them to draw our attention, Salvatore said, as fireflies go through wide population swings.

Salvatore, in fact, started the project because he didn’t see as many in his backyard as he used to, which led him and others to think their population may be diminishing.

Fireflies have only a few weeks at the most to find a mate in limited social gatherings at night. Those speed-dating sessions don’t leave them enough time to travel to fly far, Salvatore said. So it’s not like they migrated here.

There hasn’t been much research on them or their natural history.

“You have to be out every night, in the summer, at all hours of the night, while the mosquitoes are out,” he said. “It’s not an easy thing to study.”

Laurie Talley grew up in North Carolina and hadn’t seen fireflies for 30 years because she lived in Arvada. She came to Greeley a few days ago to see them with her daughter, Mackenzie, a senior at the University of Northern Colorado, after seeing the Facebook postings about them.

“It was pretty exciting,” Talley said.

That excitement, however, was tinged with disappointment. The swampy area made it difficult for her to catch one.

“I never got to hold one,” she said in a pouty voice.

Even so, it brought back memories, just as seeing the fireflies did for Tuschhoff, who watched her fiancee turn into a squealing child as the sight of them.

— Staff writer Dan England covers the outdoors, entertainment and general assignment stories for The Tribune. His column runs on Tuesday. If you have an idea for a column, call (970) 392-4418 or e-mail dengland@greeleytribune.com. Follow him on Twitter @ DanEngland.